Rashad Evans

Loiseau stated that he and Jackson both approached each other after his loss to Joey Villasenor and agreed to start working together. Both Loiseau and Jackson are very excited to be working with each other:

“I think Greg Jackson is a genius when it comes to MMA,” said the 27-year-old Loiseau. “It’s all about the chemistry, the fighter-trainer thing. With the changes I want to make, I think Jackson is man to bring me to the top.”

“It’s gonna be a ‘give and take’ relationship for sure,” said Jackson. “I think Dave’s got a lot of potential and I look forward to working with him.”

Working with Jackson also means that Loiseau and possibly his good friend UFC Welterweight Champion Georges St. Pierre will be training along side his opponent from last weekend, Villasenor, as well as current UFC title contenders Diego Sanchez, Rashad Evans, and Nate Marquardt…

“He [Jackson] has an army of great fighters and I am excited about joining the camp,” said Loiseau. “Every time Georges came back he would have so many great things to say about them.”

“I have so much to share with them technique-wise,” Loiseau agreed. “I’m not one to keep it to myself and I am definitely open to new lessons. The more you share the better you become.”

Looking at the stable of fighters currently training under Jackson and the success that they are having, he must definitely be doing something right…

What are your thoughts on the UFC’s heavyweight division? The last few fights with Sylvia have been really lackluster at best, obviously Arlovski is still one of the better heavyweights, but we’ve seen enough of Sylvia vs. Arlovski. Is the fight between Sylvia and Couture just a publicity stunt/sign of despiration by the UFC similar to the Hughes - Gracie fight last year? What can the UFC do to bring fans to the table to watch heavyweight fights, or as they just gonna continue to be semi-undercards?

Thanks

Thanks for the props Nate…

The UFC’s heavyweight division has improved greatly since last year. The reason why Tim Sylvia’s recent fights have been so lackluster is best stated by Randy Couture himself in that he believes Sylvia is not fighting to win, but fighting not to lose. You can tell that Sylvia is thinking defense first in his fights - He’s trying to avoid getting hit, only taking opening when they are given to him instead of being aggressive and creating them himself. Sylvia has denied that this is his mindset but it’s obvious that he isn’t the same Sylvia we have seen when he was moving up the ranks at the start of his career and when he was trying to win his belt back at UFC 59.

The Sylvia-Couture fight isn’t a publicity stunt of any means. Anyone who has seen Couture fight knows that he is just as dangerous at heavyweight as he is at 205 lbs. Couture has made it known that he was itching to step back into the Octagon ever since he announced his retirement. Moving up to heavyweight is good for him as he has bulked back up to his natural weight of 225 lbs since he retired. At Randy’s age, it’s best that he doesn’t go through the rigors of cutting weight as it takes a strong physical toll on one’s body, especially at his age, when the chance that he might not be able to fully recover in the 24 hour period before the fight is so strong.

As far as the UFC trying to improve the division, aren’t we seeing now that with the additions of Mirko Cro Cop and Heath Herring? Dana White has made it known that he is trying to sign as much top talent as possible this year so I’m certain that those two won’t be the only big additions to the UFC’s heavyweight division this year. I think the UFC should go ahead and build up multiple contenders just like they did at welterweight. This way contract disputes, injuries, and things that would prevent a fight from happening can be worked around. Andrei Arlovski, Gabriel Gonzaga, and Brandon Vera (if he realizes that he needs to actually been an elite fighter before he gets paid top money) are already in line for a title shot if they win another fight or two. Having multiple fighters like them in the division would bring a lot of the excitement back…

Well I guess this would be the perfect opportunity to introduce you to our newest feature - From The Mailbag. Basically if you send in a question, we will try our best to answer it and post it on the site under this heading. Simple as that…

C Rizzle writes:

If Rampage gets through Eastman and I figure he will, do you see Dana matching him up with Liddell right away? (I see him getting 2 fights before a title bout) If not and you are going to give him another bout before the title fight, I could very well see Dana matching him up with Evans, and in light of Evans comments saying he would “knock Jackson out”, I think this could have some merit to it. Or do you see him fighting a Sobral, Jardine, etc. What are your thoughts?

Basically I think it’s all going to come down to what Dana White decides to do. The Light-Heavyweight division is absolutely stacked, we already know that. The problem is that there is no legitimate number one contender to Chuck Liddell’s belt.

Could Quinton Jackson get an immediate title shot if he beats Marvin Eastman? It’s very possible and only because there isn’t any other fighter that is a step ahead of the rest right now and would be a just challenger.

If Rashad Evans and Keith Jardine are forced to fight or else they are terminated from their UFC contracts, I think the two will fight. If not, another scenario Dana may be visualize is Tito Ortiz vs Keith Jardine and Quinton Jackson vs Rashad Evans. Another thing that may prevent this is the fact that Forrest and Tito are heavily rumored to be fighting at UFC 70.

Michael Bisping is still going to have two or three more fights before he is seriously considered just like the rest of The Ultimate Fighter alumni. Renato Sobral and Jason Lambert are scheduled to fight at UFC 68 so that takes them out of the picture for now…

But where does this leave Liddell? Is he going to have to go through another UFC 57-UFC 62 stretch where he doesn’t fight? Will Dana try to grab Wanderlei Silva again? There’s so many possible scenarios that could happen, it’s too early to really to gage what’s going to happen until some of these fights go down and future matchups are finalized.

Anyway there are my thoughts on the situation. Hope I answered your question well enough…

A lot of interesting news and notes were brought to light after last night’s event were over…

- The Wrestling Observer reported last night in it’s live play-by-play of the fight that Diego Sanchez would tentatively be facing Josh Koscheck at the UFC’s event in April. (UFC 69 which will take place in Houston, Texas) MMA Weekly now has the fight listed as a rumor as well. It makes me wonder if something was said or at least shown on the video screen during the preliminary fights seeing how Wrestling Observer just plopped that note in there out of nowhere.

- Sean Salmon was rushed to the hospital last night right after the event was over. Those at the event said that he was motionless on the mat for upwards of seven minutes. He received a CAT scan that came up negative at the hospital and was released in the wee hours of the morning. He is doing fine and is now vacationing with his family.

- UFC President Dana White announced at the post-fight press conference that Hermes Franca would be getting a shot at Sean Sherk’s UFC Lightweight belt at some point during the summer when Sherk is able to fight again. Sherk is currently recovering from shoulder surgery that will keep him out of action for at least another month or two.

Perhaps the most interesting exchange took place after the show at the press conference. When a reporter asked about a prospective match with Evans vs. Keith Jardine, who made a name for himself by knocking out Forrest Griffin on Dec. 30 in Las Vegas, UFC President Dana White said that sounded like a great idea. Evans shot back that he trains regularly with Jardine in Albuquerque, and he would never fight him. White said that if he made the match, he’d fight him. Evans shot back that he would not, and the awkward exchange ended at that point.

Other fighters have put friendships aside to move up the rankings in the past… Will see it happen between these two in the near future?

The Ultimate Fighting Championship has officially announced that the January 25th UFC Fight Night card is set and it will feature 8 fights. The event will take place in Hollywood, FL at the Seminole Hard Rock Live Arena. Here is the current card…

Fans are guaranteed three live bouts which will be Fisher vs. Franca, O’Brien vs. Herring and Evans vs. Salmon. If there are a few quick finishes we may get to see some of the undercard action. The event will go live at 8 PM EST on Spike TV.

- Former UFC Welterweight Champion Carlos Newton will take on Matt Lindland in a “superfight” on the IFL fight card Feb. 2 in Houston.

- A few days ago Seth Petruzelli released a MySpace bulletin which said that his fight at UFC Fight Night 8 was off. Petruzelli recently released another bulletin saying he may still be on the card.

Petruzelli’s bulletin said “Hey guys, I still have to train and go weigh in the 25th for the UFC…my opponent injured his ankle. They are trying to find me a new fight on short notice but it doesn’t look good. So I still have to go ready to fight just in case. Thanks and I hope to be back fighting for you all soon!”

- As we reported yesterday, The Gracie Fighting Championships: Evolution event has been postponed due to unknown circumstances. This is an unfortunate turn of events as the GFC: Evolution card was looking very solid with UFC veterans Jeff Monson, Wes Sims, Nick Diaz, Renato Verissimo, and others. Hopefully the get things sorted out and find a new date for the show soon. The response so far from fighters and fans is fairly negative, here is what Randy Harris and Marco Avellan had to say on ‘The Underground’.

Marcos Avellan - “I’m obviously super bummed out. One of my biggest disapointments was for all the people who made a lot of sacrifices so that I could train for this fight. My brother and other FFA instructors picked up the slack for me and taught all my classes for the past six weeks. My wife had to deal with my temper tantrums because of the weight cutting and training - I’m the first to admit I’m a bit difficult to deal with when training full time and dieting.

And then Lloyd Irvin trained me personally for a week… and Eric “El Tigre” Castanos and Paulino Hernandez took a ton of time out of their personal schedules to train me.

So thank you to all of them, you guys did an AWESOME job getting me ready and we’ll do it again one more time when the fight is rescheduled.

In the meantime, to my students, I’m back! I miss all you guys and am looking forward to teaching some classes again!

And about the GFC, I think they are trying their best to resolve this the best they can. I used to promote shows (not nearly as big as the GFC) and it is a TOUGH business. A lot of people don’t realize some of the crazy monkey wrenches that get thrown your way as a promoter. Believe me… if anyone is suffering from this… they are taking it the WORST. I really think they did everything they could to treat the fighters A+... I genuinely believe they probably had no other choice.

So a strong recovery to all those involved with this show - fighters, spectators, and promoters.

Marcos “

Randy Harris - “Yes I was told postponed but as far as I am concerned it has been cancelled. I wouldn’t plan on attending it ever again. People have spent money on plane tickets and more and they are now out! BAD BAD business!”